Saturday, June 11, 2011

Honey Pilsner Ale

This did not go as planned but I think it benefited from the changes. It originally was a Patersbier Kit from Northen Brewer. I followed the recipe but used a different yeast.  I have substituted the Belgian yeast for Safale US-05 American Ale yeast. It is supposed to very clean American Ale with crisp finish which should go well with the Pilsner malt.
Everything went expected on the brew day except the gravity was low when the yeast was pitched. It was reading about 1.035 and not the 1.047 that Northern Brewer suggests. A krausen didn't form for about 24 hours and even now there is no real activity in the airlock. I decided to add 2 pounds of honey I had leftover from making mead to boost the gravity of this beer. After entering the recipe into a calculator I came up with a predicted gravity of 1.048. The honey was added about 36 hours after pitching the yeast. Over all I am satisfied with the addition of honey, as it should meld well with all the other ingredients.

Safale US-05 American Ale Yeast
0.5 lbs CaraPils
6 lbs Pilsen malt extract syrup
2 lbs of Clover honey

1 oz Tradition hops (60 min)
0.5 oz Saaz hops (10 min)

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